“My time at Lighthouse has shown me how much the deck can be stacked against people. I think Lighthouse is a place where we can help put a couple of cards in our patients’ favor.”

Claire Maggiotto, Lighthouse clinic manager and UB medical student

Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences

BUFFALO, N.Y. — For 15 years, residents without insurance
on Buffalo’s East Side have accessed free health care at the
Lighthouse Free Medical Clinic, founded and managed by students
from the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the
University at Buffalo.

The nonprofit, drop-in clinic provides routine medical and
preventive care every Wednesday evening to residents of the East
Side, designated a “medically underserved community” by
the federal government.

Under the supervision of faculty physicians, medical school
students volunteer at the clinic, providing routine care, including
physicals, diabetes and hypertension screenings, treatment for
routine illnesses, counseling and treatment for sexually
transmitted diseases, and help with enrolling in medical
insurance.

The students have long wanted to do more. Now, they’ll be
able to, thanks to a robust fundraising effort focused on clinic
alumni and the wider UB community. The students’ annual
auction and raffle, being held from 7-11 p.m. Feb. 19 at the Pearl
Street Grill & Brewery, 76 Pearl St., is sold-out. It has
attracted 180 attendees, more than double the number who took part
in last year’s fundraiser.

The additional funds will allow the students to upgrade computer
equipment and purchase a new electronic medical records (EMR)
system.

“A new EMR system will help us transition our patients
into primary care facilities in the neighborhood to ensure
continuity of care,” explains medical student Claire
Maggiotto, a clinic manager, head of fundraising and a member of
the class of 2018.

To provide a broader array of services at the clinic, the
medical students have recruited colleagues from UB’s other
health sciences schools. Students from the School of Dental
Medicine, the School of Social Work and the School of Public Health
and Health Professions now volunteer at the clinic. Several
undergraduates from UB and Canisius College provide clerical
support and a few young professionals who are applying to medical
school also volunteer there.

“The clinic provides invaluable training and education for
medical students, undergraduates, dental students, nutritionists,
social workers and other students from the UB health sciences
community to aid the less fortunate in Buffalo,” says
Matthias Williams, a clinic manager and member of the class of 2018
at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

That kind of training helps introduce students to primary care,
some of whom may be inspired to go into the field upon
graduation.

“Every time I am there, I feel inspired to bring my best
self and do everything I can for the patients who are there,”
Maggiotto says. “Whether it’s making a patient laugh
while I’m drawing blood, explaining how to navigate the
health care system to a recent immigrant or giving a sticker to the
daughter of a patient who has been waiting five hours to have a
physical so she can start work the next day, I am driven by a
desire to help our patients in any way that I can.

“My time at Lighthouse has shown me how much the deck can
be stacked against people,” Maggiotto notes. “I think
Lighthouse is a place where we can help put a couple of cards in
our patients’ favor.”